Adventures with Alynx: The Earth Mote Letter
by DBAB
Summary: Alynx's friend shares an odd letter from her son


We all have those friends. You know, the ones that you can't figure out how you ever became

friends with in the firsrt place. They are also those friends that despite everything, you will be stuck with forever. They are the kind of people that annoy you every second of your life. You even avoid them sometimes because you don't want to put up with their personality. Even so, you could never bear losing them as a friend. They are the people who annoy you so much that you want to throw them out of the house one mnute but miss them the insant they go home. You can't stand their opinion on anything and yet find yourself asking their advice on something or comforting each other over some tragedy or even flying headlong into whatever their dramatic adventure of the day happens to be.

That being said, allow me to introduce you to the contadiction that is my friend, Shaneyah. She is about ten years older than me. She is very calm and proper and given the option, would prefer to sit around sewing and selling garments and drinking tea rather than go on any sort of adventure. The funny thing is that she's a Worgan, druid, and a very powerful one at that. Despite her hatred of adventuring, I have seen her turn into a bear and nearly single handedly (I helped a little too) save an entire village from a Horde raiding party. She tore orcs and trolls limb from limb in the most brutal and fierce fashion I have ever seen. Then she went right back to a pot of tea that she had made earlier in the day and some quilting as if nothing had happened at all.

It's these eccentricities that make me want to tell you more about her. Unfortunatly, most of her exploits are too dull for publication. Her favorite story is about the time she accidently pricked herself with a needle. But, just as a matter of record from my fantastically odd life I thought I would share at least a little about my friends from time to time. In this case, Shaneyah managed to corner me and my Pandarian friend, Jinichirusa while were fishing at Mt. Hyail.

We had been there for a few hours because we had a tip that there might be a giant tortoise in the lake and we wanted to see it (not to mention that it is a great spot for fishing). It was a nice relaxing day until we heard a low growl coming from the bushes near us. We didn't get up but the both of us reached for our weapons in case things were about to turn ugly. Slowly, a big black snout began to poke out from under the brush. A moment later it was followed by a wolf's head. My heart started to pound. Then... The wolf spoke.

"Good afternoon ladies." It said in a plesant voice.

"Merciful murlocs!" I shrieked with relief. I turned my daggers around and put them back into their sheaths. "Do you have to do that every time , Shey?"

"Yes." Jini agreed. " You scared me half to death."

Sheneyah crawled the rest of the way out of the foliage and stood upright on her hind feet. " I do apologize." She said. "But I couldn't help but avail myself of such a magnificent oppertunity to do you a mischief."

Jini and I retrieved our fishing poles, sat down again, and recast our lines into the lake. "How do did you find us anyway?" I asked, gesturing for her to join us.

"And waht do you want?" Jini followed up, still irritated from the fright.

Sheneyah accepted my invitation and sat down on the ground next to us and pulled a carefully folded piece of paper out of her pocket. "Never mind how I found you." She answered. "I can't give away all my secrets, can I? As for the why," she held up the paper. "I just recieved another letter from my dear Alexander and thought I would share it with you."

I started to groan in sorrow at this revelation but out of friendship drew it back in. It was the third letter from her son that Shenayah had volunteered to share with me so far. The first two were exceedingly dull. You would think a letter from someone one on the front lines of war, fighting the Horde would at least include some heroic aspects of battle. One might expect news of a good victory or some great act. Alexander's letters, on the other hand, ignore all of that and headed straight for the mundane. In his last letter he went on for three pages about how he preferred crispy bat wings over buzzard bites.

Just as a side note I have to tell you that 1) He's wrong (buzzard bites are infinatly superior) and 2) if you want some really good buzzard bites head over McDaulton's Pub in Ironforge and 3) Yes, he paid me to say that.

But I digress. I was talking about how dull Alexander's letters were. I was starting to feel sorry for Jini who had yet to experiance the unthrill of hearing it. Nevertheless, we settled in and agreed to listen because there is nothing you can do to avoid hearing about a mother's children when they are apt to tell you something about them. You usually just have to smile and grin and curse at yourself in your mind for forgetting to pack a few flasks of ale. At least we had the fishing.

Shenayah cleared her throat as she smoothed out the paper. From one her pockets, she procured a small set of reading glasses and affixed them over her long snout in front her eyes and began to read

_Dear Mother,_

_Hope you are well. Things are going fine here againt the Horde. We've been giving them a right good thrashing of late. Sargent Daniels says that I might make corporal soon._

_ We had a rather odd occurance recently that I wanted to tell you about. It concerns Philip Preston. You see, we all started talking about our childhoods the other day. I told him the story about you and that hair ball last Wintervail. Plaease don't be angry._

_ When it was his turn, old Preston started to tell us about his older brother, Maxis. Apparently, he had an obession with earth motes. According to Preston his father, who you know is quite wealthy and well regarded in the halls of Stormwind, always liked to reward his sons for any sort of accomplishment he could think of. Philip once received a gold coin for keeping his hair tidy for over an hour._

_ It was the same with Maxis. When he first learned to walk their father offered to reward him with anything he desired. I'm sure you can only imagine the wild throughts that might go through the mind of a child that young. That's why, when Maxis asked for a crate of earth motes, their father didn't seem to think too much of it and simply complied and awarded them to his youngest child for his accomplishment. The oddest part of it all was that Maxis didn't even open the crate. He only shoved it under neatly his bed._

_ When he was older, Maxis made the great accomplishment of finishing an entire bowl of oatmeal __without having to be coaxed vigerously by the nanny, __something that he had never done before. Their father, bursting with pride, offered him a reward but Maxis wouldn't accept anything except a crate of earth motes. And so, their father complied and once again and, once again Maxis didn't open the crate, he just shoved it under the bed._

_It was the most extraordinary thing. Every time Maxis made any sort of accomplishment, no matter how trivial, their father would reward him with the same offer and he would answer with the same request._

"There is a point to this story, right?" I was already beginning to see a pattern forming. Jini was beginning to suspect as well. She was sitting with one leg propped up, supporting her arm at the elbow which was affixed at the opposite side by her paw which was holding up her head and a very bored expression. I had the feeling that she would have left already if she hadn't caught three large fish during the opening monolauge of the letter.

Shanayah gave me a sweet smile and answered my question. "I don't know, deary." She said. "I'm seeing this for the first time myself."

There was an suble groan from my companion behind me but our friend, the proud mother, must have either not heard it or didn't care becuse she started right up where she had left off before.

_There was, another time that Maxis won his first pet battle. He was seven at the time and had gotton hold of a rather nasty squirl that he named Julian. I don't know why. Apparently, he gave a rousing performace and beat down a Westfall chicken quite handily. So, of course, their father wanted to reward him and, as usaul, Maxis only wanted a crate of earth motes._

_ Now, it seems that this arrangment had gone on so long that shoving the unopened crates of earth motes under the bed was no longer satisfactory. __Indeed, there were so many crates that the bed had begun to lift its self off of the floor__. So, Mr. Preston came up with the brilliant idea of building a rather large store house on the side of their estate._

_ Of course, anytime anything that large is built the Horde tend to take an interest. One day, while Maxis was out playing he came across a goblin that was snooping around. No doubt he thought he could get a decent price for all those earth motes on the auction house._

"Not likley." I interupted again in a monocromatic tone. I didn't really mean to, but I couldn't help it. I had to say something because you never, well almost never, get a good price on those things and recently it had become a raw nerve in my auctioning business.

Shenayah was understandably annoyed at the comment and projected a sidewise glance of dissaproval in my direction. On the other side of me Jini had fallen asleep in the same position that I last described her in. At least she wasn't snoring...yet.

Our friend made an authoritative noise by clearing her throat and began to recite her son's prose yet again:

_Maxis, even as young as he was, had the forsight to know trouble when he saw it. He aquired for himself a larg stick from a nearby tree, snuck up on the poor, unsuspecting creature, and proceeded to bash him repeatadliy about the head and neck until it had had enough and ran away._

_ Of course, this deserved a reward and, of course, one was offered and, of course, the young man aked for a crate of earth motes. The father dutifly complied and the unopened box of earth motes was sent immediatly to the new store house._

_ Now you must realize, dear mother, that I am only describing to you a few of the more interesting instances of this occurance. There are hundreds of more mundane tales I could impart to you but all with the same result. So, it's not superisng to know that by the time Maxis had grown to adulthood the store house had turned into a garrison. Yes a garrison, for the sole purpoose of houseing unopened crates of earth motes._

_ Well, by this time Maxis had decided to join the Royal Gaurd of Stormwind. He was subsequently sent off to the front lines where, Philip tells me, he distingushed himself as a fierce warrior. He was decorated and promoted. But, you can probably guess that he didn't care about any of that. All he really wanted was more earth motes from his father. And as always, when he recieved them, he promply put them into the garrison._

_ Over the next few years – _

"Shey, I-" I interrupted again. The old worgan looked at me dissaprovingly yet again. I wanted to tell her that I had to go. I was even thinking about saying that my house was on fire but something made me stop. It was probably the way she was looking at me. She is a mother after all and every mother knows how to push a little guilt trip. I was stuck for sure. I began to envy Jini who, by now, was laying face down on the ground happily snoring away.

"Continue." I relented. And so she did so.

_Over the next few years Maxis continued to fight and gain prestige in the military. Last year he was actually promoted to general but he could never stay too far out of the fighting._

_ In one battle not long ago , Maxis heroically rushed into the fray, saving several of his men but in the process was wounded quiet badly. The priests and healers were only able to keep him alive until his father and Philip could portal in to say their final farewells._

_ Philip told me that while they were there he finally got up the courage to ask why his brother always wanted crates of earth motes but never bothered to even opened them. Maxis tried to answer but at that moment was summoned to the realm of death. So I guess we'll never know._

_ Anyway, that's it for this letter. I will write again soon._

_Love You_

_Your Son,_

Alexander

And that's the letter. And if that doesn't descibe why I both love and hate my friend, Shenayah, all at the same time I don't know a better example. But I have to admit that I shared this story for another reason as well. I'm so bothered by why anyone would go to the trouble of a lifetime of collecting earth motes I have to make an appeal to anyone in Azeroth or anywhere else, for that matter. If anyony has the slightest idea or thought on the subject please let me know because I can't stop thinking about it and it's making me lose my mind. For the record, I am even willing to pay a generous amount of gold for anything that might bring me some peace on the subject.

By one final closing note I should add that since Jini fell asleep Sheneyah made her listen to the entire letter all over again. I, of course, excused myself for sanity sake. Jini hasn't spoken to me in a week.


End file.
